newspaper.”  The prejudice against such employment has scarcely died out in our own day, and may be still traced in the account of Pendennis and his friend Warrington.  People who do dirty work must be paid for it; and the Secret Committee which inquired into Walpole’s administration reported that in ten years, from 1731 to 1741, a sum of L50,077 18_s_. had been paid to writers and printers of newspapers.  Arnall, now remembered chiefly by Pope’s line,—­

  Spirit of Arnall, aid me whilst I lie!

had received, in four years, L10,997 6_s_. 8_d_. of this amount.  The more successful writers might look to pensions or preferment.  Francis, for example, the translator of Horace, and the father, in all probability, of the most formidable of the whole tribe of such literary gladiators, received, it is said, 900_l_. a year for his work, besides being appointed to a rectory and the chaplaincy of Chelsea.

It must, moreover, be observed that the price of literary work was rising during the century, and that, in the latter half, considerable sums were received by successful writers.  Religious as well as dramatic literature had begun to be commercially valuable.  Baxter, in the previous century, made from 60_l_. to 80_l_. a year by his pen.  The copyright of Tillotson’s Sermons was sold, it is said, upon his death for L2500.  Considerable sums were made by the plan of publishing by subscription.  It is said that 4600 people subscribed to the two posthumous volumes of Conybeare’s Sermons.  A few poets trod in Pope’s steps.  Young made more than L3000 for the Satires called the Universal Passion, published, I think, on the same plan; and the Duke of Wharton is said, though the report is doubtful, to have given him L2000 for the same work.  Gay made L1000 by his Poems; L400 for the copyright of the Beggar’s Opera, and three times as much for its second part, Polly.  Among historians, Hume seems to have received L700 a volume; Smollett made L2000 by his catchpenny rival publication; Henry made L3300 by his history; and Robertson, after the booksellers had made L6000 by his History of Scotland, sold his Charles V. for L4500.  Amongst the novelists, Fielding received L700 for Tom Jones and L1000 for Amelia; Sterne, for the second edition of the first part of Tristram Shandy and for two additional volumes, received L650; besides which Lord Fauconberg gave him a living (most inappropriate acknowledgment, one would say!), and Warburton a purse of gold.  Goldsmith received 60 guineas for the immortal Vicar, a fair price, according to Johnson, for a work by a then unknown author.  By each of his plays he made about L500, and for the eight volumes of his Natural History he received 800 guineas.  Towards the end of the century, Mrs. Radcliffe got L500 for the Mysteries of Udolpho, and L800 for her last work, the Italian.  Perhaps the largest sum given for a single book was L6000 paid to Hawkesworth for his account of the South Sea Expeditions.  Horne Tooke received from L4000 to L5000 for the Diversions of Purley; and it is added by his biographer, though it seems to be incredible, that Hayley received no less than L11,000 for the Life of Cowper.  This was, of course, in the present century, when we are already approaching the period of Scott and Byron.